Chapter Four
Rupert shifted in his position by the front door, his eyes glancing at the clock on the mantle once more. The leather of the chair creaked as he moved, breaking the silence in the room. Anger simmered under his calm exterior as he watched the minutes pass by. Shifting again, he sipped his tepid tea, resisting the urge to go out looking for the little prat.
Bolstered by his conversation with Joyce, Giles returned home, and decided to wait up and talk to William. By the time the hour hand had eased towards two a.m., he’d been through half a box of Earl Grey, and had beaten a repeated path between the chair and the window. It was now 2:30, and Giles could safely say, to use one of his son’s terms, he was pissed.
When he heard the key rattle in the lock, and the doorknob start to turn, he didn’t look up. He just sat, silently waiting as William let himself in.
Spike walked into the apartment, quietly closing the door and locking it. When he turned to start to his room, he drew up short when he saw his father.
“Dad?” he asked, confused.
“William,” Giles started, forcing his temper down. “Come. Sit down. I think it’s time you and I had a talk.” Spike’s brow shot up at that. The last time he had heard that particular cool tone in Rupert’s voice had been after the coppers had brought him home. Cringing inwardly at the memory of the hour long lecture, and the chilly silence that little stunt had brought on, Spike shrugged out of his duster, and moved to sit on the couch. He tilted his head, and looked speculatively at his father, wondering what was on his mind.
Giles sat, stony faced and rigid, his temper carefully controlled behind his light, blue eyes. Spike found himself absently comparing his father to Xander’s, the differences making him shudder. Giles cleared his throat, pulling the blonde’s attention back to him.
“It would seem, that we need to establish a few rules, William,” he said, his voice clipped, his eyes snapping.
“Rules?” Spike asked, brow shooting up. “I’m eighteen,” he said, barely covering his smirk.
“Yes, you are. However, as long as you are living in my house, and still in high school, you will remember which one of us is the parent,” Giles shot back. “You may legally be an adult, but I assure you, you are far from being an adult.” Anger flashed through the younger man’s eyes.
“What’s brought on all this concern, Dad? You haven’t cared much for what I do in the past year,” Spike accused, hurt replacing his anger. Guilt flashed through Giles’ eyes for an instant, before he covered it up.
“That may be true. But, I will not tolerate anymore of the behavior that got you expelled. Nor will I tolerate another visit from the police. I most CERTAINLY will not tolerate sitting up waiting for you and being half worried out of my mind. You could have been in an accident, or worse. You couldn’t’ call?” Giles lost control of his temper, rising to his feet to glower down at his son.
“Thought you’d be asleep,” was all the bleached blonde offered. Rupert stared down at him for minute, his eyes wide that his son could be so callous towards his worry.
“That is no excuse,” he spat. “So, there are going to be rules, and you will abide by them.”
“Or what?” Spike challenged, rising to his feet.
“Really want to test me, boy?” The blonde reared back at the look in his father’s eyes. He blinked in shock, seeing that his father wasn’t playing with him anymore. Slouching back down on the couch, Spike glared up at him, plucking aimlessly at the cushion.
“What are these ‘rules’?” he asked, his tone petulant. Giles remained standing, taking deep breaths to calm himself.
“One, if you are going to be out any later than one o’clock, you will call. If you don’t, you will find yourself locked out. Two,” he continued, not giving Spike the chance to interrupt. “There will be no going out on week nights while school is in session, until you have proven to me that you take your studies seriously. Three, no job. Other than the occasional odd job on the weekends, or if you are helping in the gallery. Again, because of your studies. You will have a lot to make up, especially since you are starting here with only two months left. I want to meet your friends. NO argument!” He said when Spike went to do just that. “You will tell me where you are, and what you are doing at all times.” Spike scowled darkly at his father, pursing his lips in anger. Giles stared down at his son, his ire slipping from him. Sitting in the chair once more, he waited until Spike looked up at him before continuing.
“I know that I was not there the way I should have been after your mother passed away.” Blue eyes looked at the floor, as tears sprang to them. The blond fought them back until he could look at his father with no hint of them ever being there. Giles sighed, wondering when the boy would ever let go. He hadn’t cried in the hospital, as the life slipped from Rosemary, and he hadn’t cried at the funeral. All that bottled up grief couldn’t be healthy for him. “This move, is a fresh start, for both of us. I will not allow you to conduct yourself the way you did in London. None of these rules are set in stone. There is give and take involved in them. You prove to me that you are trustworthy again, and I will adjust them accordingly.” Another deep sigh, and Giles continued. “I love you William. I’m sorry if I don’t say that enough, you know how I can be.” Spike’s eyes widened at his father’s admission. His chin started to tremble, just ever so slightly, and he had to look away again. “I worry about you, and I need to know that you are alright. Don’t ever let what happened tonight happen again. Understand?” Spike slowly nodded his head, the comparisons between his father and Xander’s starting once more. He raised his eyes to look into his father’s, and saw the worry, the love and the guilt. He felt something start to crack inside of him, the resentment that he held for his father since his mother got sick, and he’d had to start to depend on himself more and more, seemed to lessen as they stared at each other. His father wasn’t perfect, but he was trying. The least Spike could do was give a little.
“I guess we can give it a go,” he said, trying not to sound too accepting. Giles fought a smile, feeling like laughing for the first time in forever.
“Right then. Now that we understand each other, I think we could both use some sleep. Although how I’ll ever get to sleep after I drank so much tea is a mystery to me.” He mumbled the last to himself, heartened when he heard Spike’s snort of laughter.
“Just go read one of your books. That would put an insomniac to sleep,” he suggested, smirk firmly in place.
“Very amusing. Perhaps you should go on before I feel tempted to read aloud,” Giles suggested, chuckling when the boy shot up from his seat and took long strides towards the hall. “William?”
“Yeah, Dad?” Spike said, turning back to face him.
“There will also be no smoking in my house. Don’t think that I can’t smell it,” Giles said, picking up his book and starting to leaf through it. He looked up in time to see the bemused expression float across his son’s face.
“Alright,” Spike said with a laugh. He stared at his father for a long moment after Giles bowed his head to start reading. He thought about telling his father about what happened at Xander’s, but decided to wait until the morning. “Goodnight, Dad.”
“Goodnight, William.”
“I love you, too.” By the time Giles looked up from his book in surprise, Spike was already gone.
~*~*~
“Mr. Giles, I am sure that you will understand my position on this matter.” Principal Snyder started, folding his hands in front of him on his desk. Spike stared down at the little man, thinking he looked like one of those ferengi things they had on Star Trek. He instantly disliked him, and from the way he was eyeballing Spike, he could tell the feeling was mutual.
“Why don’t you explain it to me?” Giles asked, his tone making Spike’s lips quirk into a smile. He had that ‘I’m smarter than you, but I’m going to humor you anyway’ tone. Mr. Snyder looked at the two Englishmen sitting across from him, the younger one an obvious troublemaker. It was written all over him, from the top of his bleached white head, to the bottom of his booted feet. His jeans were worn and ragged, and way too tight, his t-shirt offensive, and way too tight. If he hadn’t seen the boy’s grades with his own eyes, plus checked them for accuracy, he would never have believed that this. . .person, had pulled off a honor roll GPA in his old school. Of course, that was before he got expelled, for setting the school on fire, of all things.
“You see, Mr. Giles, the amount of credits that were transferred from his old school, were not enough. Plus, his expulsion has also made it impossible for us to allow him to start his Senior year before the fall.”
“But the Board of Education assured me. . .” Giles started, sensing his son’s growing hostility.
“They may have said that under normal circumstances, he would be allowed to advance up. However, setting the school on fire, is not a normal circumstance.”
“Pillock,” Spike muttered under his breath. Snyder’s eyes narrowed into slits, but other than that, he didn’t acknowledge the comment.
“So, what exactly does this mean for my son?”
“He will be required to take a double class load, as well as take tests at the end of the year to determine if he has the skills required to pass.”
“You can see by his past records, that he does indeed.” Giles wasn’t fooled. He knew what this little man was doing. He was hoping to push Spike into walking out, so he wouldn’t have to deal with a potential troublemaker.
“I could prob’ly take the bloody tests now, and graduate,” Spike shot out.
“Will,” Giles warned, shaking his head to get him to stop. Spike scowled, and slumped further down in his seat, glaring at the smug-looking principal.
“Well, William. That’s your prerogative. You also have the choice not to be here at all. You are of age. It’s up to you.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Snyder, this is my son’s education you are talking about so casually,” Rupert snapped, wondering how this weasel was ever made principal. “I would think that you would take it more seriously.”
“Oh, I assure you, Mr. Giles, I take my job very seriously.” The two men stared each other down for a minute, Giles finally turning towards his son.
“It’s up to you, Will.” Spike pursed his lips, and glanced between his father and the Nazi behind the desk. Slowly, a sly smile spread across his face. Rupert had to suppress a shiver at the feralness of it.
“Maybe I will hang about. Don’t have a mind to rush out into adult responsibility and all that. You don’t mind, do you Dad?” He turned and faced his father, a look of false innocence on his face. Giles slid his glasses off his nose, fully aware of what his son was about.
“Not at all, William. If that is what you want.” He quickly polished the lenses, and pushed them back onto his nose, leveling his eyes back on Snyder. It was all either of them could do not to laugh in the man’s face. He looked like he had just swallowed a bucket of nails, his obvious plan of trying to get Spike to drop out failing.
“Yeah, I think so.” Spike nodded slightly, clapping his hands together, and giving them a rub. “So, what’s my first class?” he asked with a wide grin.
~*~*~
“Nazi wanker.” Spike growled as he and his father left the office. “Thinks I can’t handle it. Show his little ferengi ass.” Giles listened as his son vented, his own thoughts along the same lines.
“William, all I ask is that you remain calm, and not let your temper get the better of you.” Spike snorted, but gave him a short nod. He looked down at the schedule in his hand, snorting again for good measure. They had given him two science classes (Biology and Chemistry), two English (Grammar and Literature), two math (trig and Calculus,) and one history (Early European). With a free period for lunch. He had no electives this year, and he would have to make them up in his Senior year, provided he completed the classes he needed. Granted, he had already taken the majority of these courses, it was just a bitch to have them all piled on you at once. Too bad he could never back down from a challenge. And that little toad had definitely thrown out a challenge. He didn’t want Spike in his school, so here Spike was going to stay. He was just stubborn like that.
“Don’t worry bout me, Dad. I’ll be a perfect little student.” The blonde told his father with a smirk. Giles just shook his head, praying he wouldn’t get too many phone calls.
“I’ll see you after school. Try not to be too difficult,” he said, a pleading tone to his voice. Spike flashed him a grin and started towards the stairs.
“Me? Difficult? Never.” Then, with a salute, he was gone.
~*~*~
Spike entered the lunch room, his blue eyed gaze surveying the throngs of kids assembled at the round, Formica tables. To his left, he caught a glimpse of Cordelia and her group of sheep, the brunette studiously trying to ignore Xander, who was making his way towards Spike. Harmony sat next to Cordy, not caring about being subtle apparently, blatantly staring at the blonde.
“Hey man,” the dark haired boy said, stopping in front of him. Spike eyed the fading bruise on his friends jaw, struggling not to scowl. He had never gotten around to talking to his father about it, never quite sure how to bring it up without sending the older man into a tizzy, or betraying Xander’s confidence.
“‘ello,” he greeted, flashing a smile.
“Come on. The girls are over there.” The pair started to move through the crowd, ignoring the whispers shooting around them about the boy that was with that loser Harris.
“Hello ladies,” Spike said when they reached the table. Buffy and Willow paused in their daily fight about the necessity of math in future life, (Willow, pro, Buffy, con) to smile up at the blonde. Buffy found herself having her usual trouble thinking straight when he was around, and she quickly looked away from the heat in his eyes. Spike smirked when he saw her cheeks color, then turned to smile wide at Willow.
“How’s your first day going?” she asked, twisting a pencil through her fingers. Spike shrugged a shoulder, wishing desperately for a cigarette. Xander settled in the chair next to him, straddling it backwards.
“Not too bad. Had to do that ‘stand up introduce yourself’ thing,” he said with a roll of his eyes. Actually, it had been kinda fun. Some of the girls in the class had looked at him with disdain, whispering to themselves about the way he looked and the color of his hair. Then, he had opened his mouth, and the sound of his accent, along with the smooth, deep timber of his voice had shut them up pretty quick. Those same girls that had been heckling him, had quickly changed sides. Spike smirked as he thought of it. *Shallow little chits,* he thought. “Course, Snyder’s out to get me.” This caused a mutual groan to erupt from his three companions.
“Ugh. That man is SUCH a Nazi,” Buffy groaned, rolling her eyes. Spike snickered at the fact that she had mirrored his thoughts from earlier.
“Yeah. But not going to let him get to me. This shit is a breeze.” He threw his schedule on the table and looked around the cafeteria again, noticing that Harmony seemed to be trying to convince herself to come over to the table. He missed the wide-eyed looks of his new friends at the sight of how much Snyder had thrown on him.
“Calculus is a breeze?” Buffy said, incredulous. She had barely made it through Algebra, and was now struggling to get through Geometry, and he thought that Calculus was easy? He turned back to look at her.
“Yeah. Took it before. He’s just pissed cause I’m cool and can still pull off a 4.0 GPA,” he said with a grin. Willow’s eyes lit up, and Xander looked at him like he had grown a second head. “Wha?”
“4.0?” Xander gasped, the only time he had ever seen one of those had been when he had accidentally taken Willow’s report card home instead. “Great, another friggin’ genius in the bunch. Two times the possibilities of us feeling like complete idiots, Buff,” he huffed, glaring at the table in disgust. Spike’s brow shot up as he looked over at the other supposed ‘genius’. Willow shrugged a slender shoulder. She was used to this.
“Sounds like fun,” Buffy said, miserably. Even the bleached wonder was smarter than her, she thought, a pretty pout pushing her bottom lip out. Spike had the sudden, and unmistakable urge to lean over and nip at it with his teeth. *Just friends, mate. Remember that. At least until she has drop kicked that wanker, Angel, into the land of the poofters with bad hair,* he told himself, reaching into his pocket and extracting a lollipop, to curb the need for a cigarette. He was starting to get a little embarrassed by their reactions to his grades. School had always come easy to him. It was just the memorization of facts and numbers, nothing too hard really. But Buffy and Xander were looking at him and Willow like they had discovered the secret to eternal youth, and it wasn’t something he was used to.
“Look, it’s not a big deal, alright.”
“Yeah, tell that to Willow as she tried to guide me through the ever so thrilling explanations of why a right angle is a right angle. Why do I have to prove it, I can look at it and see it’s there. Why isn’t that enough?” Buffy huffed, closing her book with a slam. She found herself staring at Spike once again as he played with the lollipop in his mouth, the distinctive movements of his tongue over the candy causing very bad, very exciting thoughts to play through her mind. *Get a grip, Buff. These are not the things a girl with a boyfriend thinks about. At least when they don’t pertain to that boyfriend,* she scolded herself, looking down at her book before he noticed her fascination.
“I’ve told you, Buffy. You can get this. You just have to apply yourself. You know what’s going to happen if you don’t,” Willow said, closing her own book as well.
“Wha?” Spike asked, kicking Xander to turn his attention to the brunette who was trying desperately to ignore him. Xander grinned as he caught Cordelia’s eyes, and she got a deer in the headlights look, before turning away, a ghost of a smile curving her lips. Spike gave Xander a ‘see, I told you’ look, before directing his attention back to the girls. They had both watched the little display with equal parts shock and amusement. The thought of Cordy actually coming off her high horse to even THINK about speaking to Xander was incredibly funny. Not at his expense. Hers.
“I get lost in the land of summer school hell,” Buffy said.
“There are worse things,” Spike said, nearly laughing out loud at the expression of pure horror that crossed her face.
“I’m supposed to go to LA for the summer, to see my dad. So, no, there are not worse things,” Buffy told him. A whole summer in Los Angeles. She missed Rodeo Drive, she thought with a sigh. Not to mention, Angel would be there. For some reason, that thought didn’t invoke as much excitement as Rodeo Drive. She scowled a bit as she realized that.
“Well, if Willow doesn’t seem to be helping, maybe I can give it a go,” he offered, trying to look nonchalant. Offering to help her with her schoolwork, very friendly thing to do, he thought. And just because it meant that he could spend extra time with her, plus get brownie points with his dad for helping out his boss’s daughter, didn’t occur to him at all. Nope, not at all.
Willow sent him such a look full of gratitude, he almost laughed out loud. *How hard could it be?* he thought to himself.
“Really?” Buffy looked hopeful, maybe he could do something that Willow couldn’t. Like open up the top of her head and pour the information into it.
“Sure,” he answered, crunching his teeth through the lollipop at the beaming smile she gave him. He swore his heart was about to burst out of his chest, and he would have willingly offered to do anything for her to get her to smile at him like that again. Just then, the bell rang, jarring him out of his poetic thoughts, and they all gathered up their books to leave.
“Bye,” the girls called, as they turned to head to class. Xander and Spike turned in the opposite direction, coming face to face with Cordelia and Harmony. The boys exchanged a look, and Xander managed to drop a cool, ‘I’m not affected by your presence’ look on his face. Spike opted for his usual smirk, and waited for the girls to speak. Harmony gave Cordy a nudge, knocking her out of her silence.
“Look, don’t take this as some sort of monumental thing,” she began, eyes flicking to Xander before settling on Spike once more. He seemed the less dangerous of the two right now. Cordy couldn’t believe she was about to say what she was about to say. Even if her mind kept reminding her of how nice it felt to be pressed against Xander, or the smell of the aftershave he wore. That had been in a darkened movie house, while they watched a scary movie. All of her reaction had been appropriate for the setting, even though she hadn’t gone in with him. Like on a date. Like she was getting ready to do right now. Harmony gave her another nudge, and she glared at the blonde before speaking again. “We just wanted to know if you wanted to got to the Bronze, Friday. You can bring your little sidekick if you want.” *That’s it Cordy, nice and cool. Don’t let them think that you actually want him there. Good way to save face,* she cheered herself. Spike regarded the girls for a minute, then turned to look at Xander, who was doing a crappy job of not letting his hopefulness show. He then looked back at Harmony, getting the feeling that if he DIDN’T go, all hope of Cordy and Xander going on their own was lost. Sighing inwardly, nodded.
“Sure, sounds fun,” he said, trying not to roll his eyes. The things he did for his friends.
“Great,” Cordy said, glancing back at Harmony, then turning to leave. The boys watched them go, one with a look of awed excitement, the other with a look of bemused terror.
“Good God. I can’t believe that,” Xander gasped, as they started to walk to their next class.
“You owe me,” Spike snarled. He couldn’t believe he was going to go, just so Xander could have a shot with the prom queen. It wasn’t that Harmony wasn’t pretty, she just didn’t hit any nerves in him.
“I know. And I will make it up to you,” Xander promised. Spike took a minute to look at the brunette, smiling at the dazed expression on his face. Then he paused to take in his wardrobe. He grimaced a bit at the corduroy pants and the oversized t-shirt, with a flannel flung over top. “What?”
“Where did you learn how to dress? LL Bean?” Xander just looked back at him, unoffended.
“Oh, as opposed to your sense of style, which seems to have come straight out of the Sid and Nancy catalogue of ‘Clothes for the Hip Juvenile Delinquent’?” Xander returned, looking at Spike’s ever-present ripped jeans and rock concert t-shirt. A studded belt slung low over his lean hips, and he had added a thick silver chain to his throat.
“Hey, it got you asked out, didn’t it?” Spike said as they resumed walking.
“No, it got YOU asked out. It got me thrown in as the consolation prize.” Spike snorted at that.
“Yeah, well, you’re still buying the tickets for Saturday.” They had made plans to go back to the track, Spike finding himself enraptured by the cars and the speeds that they could acquire and still be street legal.
“Fine,” Xander huffed, smiling. “Hey, wanna come with to the mall. Think they got that new Motor Trends Magazine out.”
“Wouldn’t mind it, cept I’m under house arrest until ‘I prove myself to be trustworthy’,” Spike mimicked the exact resonance, and pitch of his father’s upper class accent.
“Damn. What did you do?”
“He kinda got pissed that I didn’t show up til two thirty in the morning. Go figure.” Spike said, glancing at the clock on the wall, They were dangerously close to being late. “Shit, gotta jet. Meet me outside after school. We can head to my house,” he didn’t want Xander to go home.
“Yep.” Xander broke into a jog in the opposite direction, and Spike rushed up the stairs, barely making it into the class as the bell rang shrilly through the halls.